This week's Reading Royals wrap-up

Photo by Brad Drey of Perdon House of Photography
Yannick Tifu became third different Royal to score the lone goal (and game winner) in a 1-0 playoff win for the Royals, joining Mike Sandbeck (04/16/04) and Brock Hooton (05/01/08).

1. The Royals won the first two games of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Quarterfinal (ECQI Kelly Cup playoff series with the Greenville Road Warriors, which were played at the Sovereign Center. The series shifts to BI-LO Center in Greenville, South Carolina, for GAmes Three, Four and Five (if necessary). If Games Six and Seven are necessary, the series will return to Sovereign Center.

2. This marks the eighth time in the 12-year history of the team that Reading has qualified for the post-season. This ECQ is the 16th playoff series in Royals’ history. In the previous 15 playoff series for the Royals, they have compiled an overall record of 8-7.

3. The Royals won Game One of the ECQ series at Sovereign Center, 1-0. Of the 16 playoff series that the Royals have played, this marked the ninth time that the Royals have opened a series at home. The Royals are 5-3-1 in series’ opening games

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at home. (In the four previous series in which the Royals have won the opener at home, the team has only ultimately won the series once - the 2010 American Conference semifinals against the Florida Everblades.)

4. The Royals have won the series opening game (home and away) in eight of theteam’s 16 playoff series the team has played. The Royals have won three of theprevious eight series in which they’ve taken a 1-0 lead in the playoff series.

5. The Royals won Game Two of the ECQ matchup with Greenville in Reading, 4-0. This is the third time in team history that Reading has opened a series by winning the first two games: (i) 2010 American Conference Semi-Finals against Florida (won

best of seven series, 4-0); (ii) 2010 American Conference Finals against the Cincinnati Cyclines (lost best of seven series, 3-4; and (iii) 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals

against the Elmira Jackals (lost best of five series, 2-3).

6. The Royals got five goals from five different players in the first two gamesof the ECQ series against the Road Warriors: (i) Yannick Tifu; (ii) Alex Berry;(iii) Stan Galiev; (iv) Nikita Kashirsky; and (v) T.J. Syner.

7. The Royals were 0-6 on the power play in Friday’s 1-0 win which included1:48 of five on three mid-way into the third. Reading went 1-7 in Game Twoon Saturday, scoring the game winning goal on the team’s fourth power playof the night early in the second period.

8. Reading’s penalty killers knocked off all three of the Road Warriors chanceswith the man advantage on Friday and killed both of Greenville’s PP chancesin Saturday’s 4-0 win.

9. This marks the first time in team history that Reading has opened a series with back-to-back shutouts. There has been only other series in team historyin which the Royals have had two shutouts in the series: the 2005 North Divisionsemifinals against the ToledoStorm in which goaltenderBarry Brust put up back-to-back shutouts (and 169:27 of playoff time without giving up a goal) in Games Two and Three of the series. Reading won that best-of-five series, 3games to 1.

11. Friday’s 1-0 win for the Royals marked the 20th time in team history that the Royals have played in a game decided by a 1-0 score. Thirteen of those games have been inthe regular season (4-9-0-0) and seven have come in playoffs (3-4-0).

1. Yannick Tifu became third different Royal to score the lone goal (and game winner) in a 1-0 playoff win for the Royals, joining Mike Sandbeck (04/16/04) and Brock Hooton (05/01/08

@ Cincinnati).

2. Tifu recorded a pair of assists in the 4-0 win in Game 2 of the ECQ series against Greenville. That was his second multi-point game in playoffsfor the Royals. (Last season, he recorded a goal and an assist in the Royals’ 4-1 win over the Elmira Jackals in Game One of the Eastern Conference

quarterfinal series.) Tifu has recorded at least one point in his last three playoff games for Reading. (He scored a goal to the game at two 13:20into the third period of the decisive Game Five in last year’s ECQ against the Royals, which Reading ended up losing 4-2.) In fi-six career proplayoff games, Tifu has forty-six points (16g-30a).

3. Nikita Kashirsky assisted on the team’s lone goal on Friday

and scored a goal and picked up an assist in Saturday’s 4-0 win.Kashirsky has also had at least a point in his last three playoffgames—he scored a pair of goals in his last playoff game as a member of the Gwinett Gladiators in 2012 (a 4-3 double-overtime loss for the Gladiators to the South Carolina Stingrays in what proved to be a decisive game four in that ECQ series).Kashirsky, who has recorded 44 points (18g-26a) in his last 36 games with the Royals (including regular season games),

has 24 points (9g-15a) in 32 career playoff games.

4. Alex Berry scored the game winner in Saturday’s 4-0 win for

the Royals, while the team was playing with the man advantage.

He also recorded an assist on the lone goal scored by

Reading on Friday. Berry, who is the only player with the Royalsthis season who was with the team during the 2010 playoff run,had a four game point streak (1g-3a) from 04/11/10 through04/15/10 in his first run in playoffs with the Royals. Berry also recorded a fighing major in a tilt with Steven Delisle at the 113:19 mark of the third period in Friday’s win.

5. Stan Galiev scored his first pro playoff goal 16:37 into the second period onSaturday to give the Royals a 2-0 lead. Galiev, who led the Quebec Major JuniorHockey League last season with 16 playoff goals and 34 playoff points, had 80

career playoff points (34g-46a) in 57 playoff games for the Saint John Sea Dogsin QMJHL.

6. T.J. Syner, David Vallorani, and Barry Almeida each picked up their first proplayoff point in Saturday’s 4-0 win. For Syner, he scored the Royals’ fourth goalthat night; Vallorani and Almieda each recorded a power play assist on the game

winner by Alex Berry.

7. Dustin Stevenson snapped a 13-game streak without registering a point when he picked up a helper on the Royals’ third goal (by Nikita Kashirsky) on April 6. Stevenson had three points (1g-2a) in playoffs last season with the South Carolina Stingrays, which included scoring the game-tying goal 2:15 into the third period of Game 3 of the ECQ with the Gwinnett Gladiators that sent the gmae to four overtimes before it was finally resolved in favor of South Carolina.

8. Brett Flemming engaged in the first fight of the post-seasons for the Royals, fighting Matt Lowry of Greenville 5:42 into the first period of Game 1.

9. Goaltender Riley Gill picked up the win in the first two games of theECQ against Greenville. He has stopped all 45 shots he has faced from theRoad Warriors (18 on Friday; and 27 on Saturday) in recording back-to-back shutouts to start the series (He has 128.08 of consecutive scoreless time right now). Gill has recorded three playoff shuouts in his career. As a member of Kalamazoo last season, he blanked the South Carolina 3-0 onApril 18, 2012 in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final match-up with the KWings.Gill, who had a six game win streak with Kalamazoo in playoffs lastseason (04/04 – 04/18/12), has compiled a record of 11-8-1 in 21 career ECHL playoff appearances with the Royals and K-Wings.